Come Together
by karatam
Summary: Rachel just wants Quinn's birthday to be perfect, is that too much to ask?


**Title**: Come Together  
**Rating**: PG  
**Pairing**: Quinn/Rachel**  
****Spoilers**: none  
**Summary**: Rachel just wants Quinn's birthday to be perfect, is that too much to ask?  
**Disclaimer**: All characters belong to Fox and Ryan Murphy. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made from this work of fiction.

* * *

A person only turns 17 once.

Well, unless there was time travel involved or a rip in the space-time continuum, but that is neither here nor there, really. The point of the matter is, Rachel wants Quinn's seventeenth birthday to be memorable, amazing, fantastic, remarkable and any other positive word she can remember from that time she read her entire thesaurus in eighth grade.

And that is why she's standing in the middle of her living room, a pointy birthday party hat strapped to her head and a noisemaker clutched in her hand. The rest of Glee is crouching behind strategically placed furniture – Rachel had rearranged it all that afternoon to accommodate the number of people hiding, as the former arrangement had not been conducive to hiding fully grown people.

Quinn hadn't experienced the easiest year known to man and Rachel wanted to mark a new beginning. Secretly, she had organized a surprise party while Quinn was busy with her new (old?) position as Head Cheerio. She had employed Santana and Brittany – well, mostly Brittany because Santana had just rolled her eyes and resumed filing her nails – to keep Quinn distracted at opportune times and to keep track of the blonde after practice.

Decorating had – rather foolishly in retrospect – been delegated to Finn and Puck. When Kurt had walked into Rachel's living room two hours earlier, he had smacked both boys over the head and ordered them back to work.

But the most important part was the perfectly harmonized version of 'Happy Birthday' they had all been working on for the past two weeks. Rachel had collaborated with Artie to create _the_ most perfect arrangement of the traditional song probably ever known to mankind. There was even choreography that Brittany had suggested – well, originally she had suggested that they all dress up as candles, an idea that Rachel had briefly entertained herself before realizing that most of her friends would rather die.

Rachel and Quinn have been dating for a while now. Not a super long time, but long enough for something like a surprise party to mean a lot to Rachel. This needed to go well, because Quinn hadn't had the easiest time and she has been simply faultless to Rachel since she first asked Rachel out on a date. Rachel just wants to make Quinn happy, in any way she can. Throwing a perfect birthday party seems like a wonderful way to start.

She had told Quinn to show up at exactly six thirty and since Quinn knows all about Rachel's obsession (Santana's word, not Quinn's) with punctuality, Rachel knows her girlfriend will arrive in precisely forty-seven seconds. Rachel had synced their watches during chemistry class that morning.

"Is everybody in position? Does everyone remember the signal? I refuse to let one person's over eagerness ruin this surprise." She tries not to look at Brittany, but it's rather hard. The blonde is currently inspecting a fake plant and doesn't even notice. Santana glares at Rachel, who turns back toward the front door.

Her grip on the noisemaker tightens when she hear the distinctive noise of a key in the lock of the door. As the doorknob slowly turns, the very air of the room tenses. Finn once again looses control of his limbs and lightly kicks a side table, hissing out a pained breath and clamping down his teeth to try and suppress any noise. Rachel had stated earlier what she would do to anyone who ruined her surprise, and Finn wasn't too afraid to say that Rachel scared him a little. Okay, maybe she scared him a lot.

The door swings open and Quinn steps through, tucking her key into her bag as she does. She looks up and sees Rachel standing there, party hat, noisemaker and all. Quinn drops her Cheerios bag to the ground and takes a few quick steps to stand in front of her girlfriend. Smiling that smile – the smile that always makes Rachel go weak in the knees – she reaches up and gently put her hands on Rachel's cheeks, drawing her into a soft kiss.

Before Rachel realizes what's happening, she's dropped her noisemaker, her hat is tipped off her head and her arms are winding around Quinn's neck. Quinn's hand has crept into her hair, fingers twining delicately through the strands when their bubble is burst.

"Are they going to have sex? Am I allowed to watch? Because I think it would be really pretty. And hot."

Quinn's head jerks back at the sound of Brittany's voice, her eyes snapping open and her arm tightening around Rachel's waist possessively. "No, you cannot watch, B. And why are you here, hiding behind a chair?"

"This is a surprise. Oh, you're not supposed to know I'm here." And with that she ducked back behind the chair and closed her eyes, trying to hide properly.

Turning to look back at Rachel, who is still looking slightly dazed, Quinn just raises an eyebrow. Rachel prefers to call it "The Eyebrow Raise Of Doom", but Quinn always says that she's being dramatic, there's no need to capitalize "Of".

Rachel swallows convulsively and then clears her throat twice. She waits a few seconds but nothing happens. She twists her head to look over her shoulder to glare at the seemingly empty room. "People, that was the signal," she stage whispers.

There's a flurry of noise and all of Glee jumps up from behind every object large enough to hide a person – though Mike had somehow hidden behind a garbage can in a way that defied physics.

"Happy Birthday!" Quinn's eyes widen at the sheer volume of the exclamation but she's smiling, so Rachel finally lets herself breathe.

/ /

Finn and Brittany get into the cake a full half hour ahead of Rachel's colour coded and laminated schedule. They immediately go into a sugar high and have to be confined to the back yard until they calm down.

Rachel tries to dampen her annoyance while Santana smirks and Quinn looks mostly amused.

/ /

The whole club pitched in and bought Quinn a signed copy of a Journey poster. When Quinn read the words printed across the top, she has to swallow hard to keep her composure.

"Don't Stop Believin'"

/ /

When Puck hands Quinn a small package afterwards while Quinn is getting a glass from the kitchen, she isn't quite sure what to expect. She carefully peels back the shiny paper and finds a small photo album. She looks up at Puck questioningly, but he just looks at the album. She opens it to find a succession of black and white pictures of Beth, the most recent dated only a month ago.

The air feels like it's sucked out of the room and when she looks up, Puck is watching her with sad eyes. She reaches up and wraps her arms around his neck, trying not to sob.

Rachel sees them from the doorway and catches Puck's gaze. They nod at each other and she retreats back to the living room.

/ /

Much later, Rachel ushers Finn and Noah out the door, thanking them for their help throughout the day. She stands in the doorway until the boys get into Noah's truck and drive away – she wants to make sure nothing happens to them, one can never be too careful. She closes the door and turns to see Quinn sitting on the couch, holding the large collective birthday card from their friends.

Rachel walks up to Quinn and carefully sits down beside her. "Did you like your surprise?"

When the blonde looks up at her with tears forming in her eyes, Rachel immediately goes into panic mode. Now panic mode also means babble mode for Rachel, so she starts talking. "Oh no, you didn't like it did you? You probably wanted a quiet night in, or maybe a movie, not all our friends in one place being loud. Or what if you didn't want to come over at all? You're probably tired from practise, I know Santana was saying that Coach Sylvester was especially tough today and maybe you wanted a shower. I could drive you home now if you –"

Quinn reaches up and places a finger on Rachel's lips, stopping her long rant. "Rachel, I loved it. Don't worry." She smiles as Rachel releases a long breath and tugs the smaller girl into her body, rearranging them on the couch for optimal snuggling.

Rachel turns her head slightly and presses a kiss to Quinn's neck, nearly purring at the feeling of Quinn's fingers sifting through her hair. "I'm glad, Quinn. Happy Birthday."

Quinn reaches over and intertwines their hands, squeezing tightly. "This is the best birthday I've ever had, Rachel. Thank you."

Closing her eyes, Rachel smiles.

Mission accomplished.


End file.
